Splinter Cell: Operation Rogue Mercury
by DaddyLongLegs44
Summary: The worlds most elite anti-terror teams will need to work together to track and find the Rogue Mercury bomb from the JBA's famed but failed attempts to "set the world on fire." New and existing characters from the Tom Clancy(R.I.P.) universe will eventually be present. I own none of the Tom Clancy characters.
1. Prologue: Mexican Stand Off

Splinter Cell Operation Rogue Mercury

March 06, 2008

1:13 A.M.

Mexico City, Mexico

NSA operative's field house

* * *

><p>"You see him?" Agent Lopez asked after shoving another bite of enchiladas in his mouth.<p>

The man leaning on the third story window seal frustratingly exhaled, "Again, no I don't see him. Believe me if I do I'll say something." Agent Rubio wiped the sleep from his eyes before replacing the binoculars back into position, "he should have left his apartment by now though," he examined his watch which read 1:14 in the morning.

Agent Lopez leaned over Rubio sprinkling crumbs on his shoulder, "there! Who's that?!" A man exited the apartment complex that was across the wide traditional cobblestone street.

Rubio cursed as he shoved Lopez off of him to regain his focus on the front door. He refocused the lens that was trained on the man leaving the complex. _Hmmm… shit._ "Not him, look." He handed Lopez the binoculars who also confirmed that the man wasn't their target who was Lieutenant Colonel Ontiveros.

The Lieutenant Colonel has grabbed the NSA's attention over the years. He's been holding secret meetings with military leaders, however they were not so secret after NSA agents bugged them, and he's been talking of establishing a coup to over throw the government which would further throw the country into chaos.

"Didn't the bastard say he was leaving soon?" Lopez said as he plopped down into a chair next to the phone tapping machine. He placed the headset on and replayed their targets last phone call.

Agent Rubio cursed again under his breath, _"Ellos no pagan lo suficiente para esto."_

Suddenly a convoy of military vehicles rushed down the sleepy Mexican street then halted right in front of the apartment complex. Men dressed in combat fatigues ran into the apartment foyer and immediately returned with the Lieutenant Colonel and ushered him in a vehicle. The convoy was gone just as quickly as it arrived. Both agents starred at each other in bewilderment.

Suddenly their opsats poked their wrists and buzzed slightly. They simultaneously read the text that read _URGENT! _They looked at each other with disbelief. Rubio jumped from his seat near the window and Lopez choked down the last bit of enchilada before grabbing their gear and dashing out the door.

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><p><em>Urgent! Proceed to 219<em>_th__ street and Calle de Flores Street immediately. Scrub all current tasks. You are to regroup with and aid the Mexican Special Forces in the raid of Massoud Ibin-Yussif's compound and to assist them in disabling a nuclear warhead. You are now under command of Lieutenant Colonel Ontiveros and his subordinates. Do not allow the terrorist cell to detonate the warhead and do not allow the warhead to fall into the Mexican Army's hands. -Third Echelon._

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><p>After a brisk drive to the cross streets the two agents were met by a blockade of Army troopers. They flashed the soldiers their I.D.s and were escorted to a team of Mexican spec ops.<p>

Both agents were now wide awake given their dangerous predicament. Disabling a nuclear bomb while under control of the crazy Lieutenant Colonel Ontiveros that they've been stalking was probably the last scenario they ever imagined.

Lopez leaned in close to Rubio's ear and whispered, "Keep cool man, let's not blow our cover okay?"

"How about we worry about this nuclear fucking bomb amigo." He exclaimed. Lopez nodded agreeing.

The captain of the spec ops squad greeted the agents hastily and proceeded to brief them along with his men. They were to raid the large complex killing all occupants while finding their way to the bomb. Then comes the tricky part, the American agents are to disable the bomb and deliver it to the Lieutenant Colonel immediately.

Lopez and Rubio were intently listening to the Captain when a pair of hands slapped upon their shoulders. They spun around only to be face to face with Ontiveros. "Welcome Americans. I'm sure you were handpicked specifically from your embassy to aid us in quelling this terrorist threat to my homeland. I'm also sure you men have extensive experience in counter-terrorism and EOD. Good luck Americans." He smirked and walked towards an awaiting vehicle probably for his extraction out of the city. "Oh and captain, make sure I get that bomb." The Captain saluted the Lieutenant Colonel and then he was gone. Lopez's heart almost stopped after coming face to face with Ontiveros. Rubio wiped the sweat from his brow thanking his lucky stars that Ontiveros didn't recognize them from close up surveillance work that they've done in the past. Lopez felt panicky and began chewing at his nails.

"Rubio I've never disabled a bomb before, I've actually never killed anybody in my entire life!" Lopez blurted out.

Rubio looked at him with wide eyes, "You lied to me? What happened to you being a badass splinter cell you idiot?"

"I've never actually said that I did all of those things in real life. I scored an A+ rating from Grim herself, during training simulation." Lopez said embarrassed.

"Sims! You bragged about sims training?! I can't believe you Lopez! You do know how to disable a class 3 bomb though don't you?" Rubio began to sweat profusely.

Lopez placed a hand on his shoulder attempting to reassure him, "Of course I know, I just never have done it in the real world." A few commandos' jaws dropped after over hearing their new bomb squads experience.

The Captain intervened before the agents killed each other or before they caused a panic attack amongst the commandoes. "Americans please get ready we're moving out in five minutes."

They suited up and were given a pair of old 1911s with a few magazines. The Captain spoke up, "we'll ride in through the front gate and breach the front door. Alex you're tasked with reading the radiation levels, lead us to the bomb. Americans, stay behind us we're tasked with keeping you alive so please keep our objective from failing okay? Alright let's go!" The men jumped into a pair of SUVS and sped off the Captain called the operation to move forward and not two seconds later explosions rocked the street as assault teams breached the compounds defenses. Several large warehouses and barracks were within the gated complex and all buildings were being assaulted all at once by Army personnel and spec ops. The lead SUV sped up and rammed the main gate open. The team spilled out of the SUVs and began assaulting the main door to the large Mexican mansion that was the main building in the entire complex and the most probable location for the nuclear bomb. Automatic fire ripped up the courtyard. Lopez sprinted for the front door where the Captain was placing breaching charges.

"Hey where's your friend, American?"

Lopez looked over his shoulder seeing only a few commandos but no Rubio.

_Fuck. _Lopez flinched at every crack of gun fire as he strained to find his partner in the courtyard. "There he is!" Rubio was pinned down underneath one of the SUVs that was in the middle of the courtyard right next to a beautiful fountain that was now peppered with bullet holes. "Rubio get your brown ass over here!" Rubio replied but Lopez couldn't hear him over the deafening gunfire. Suddenly the front door was blown open and the commandos went in firing all over the place. Lopez motioned for Rubio to run for it after he stepped out into the courtyard to lay down suppressive fire at one of the buildings windows. Rubio scrambled out from under the SUV and dove inside the building. Lopez fallowed reloading his 1911. The building looked like an old, but rich, Mexican styled country home with faded paintings lining the foyer and a great chandelier that hung over head. They could hear the other teams assaulting the warehouses and barracks that were disguised as multi storied apartments. The entire complex must have been huge, but even though they've been stationed nearby they would have never guessed the gated community was a terrorist safe haven. Rubio and Lopez scanned their surroundings, bullet holes riddled the walls and once they exited the foyer they saw a few enemy and friendly bodies lying around the social room. The team was nowhere in sight.

"Hey," Lopez whispered, "you ever seen a dead guy before?" He gulped.

Rubio rolled his eyes. "Yes just now," Rubio demanded Lopez's attention, "focus Lopez there's a fucking nuclear bomb here man and we need to disarm it then keep it from falling into the wrong hands which is everyone at the moment. Okay?" Lopez nodded then raised the team on his radio asking what their location was. After receiving instructions Lopez led Rubio down a hallway that led to a stairwell which descended deep in the earth. The sound of automatic fire was thunderous in the confined underground as they reached the bottom level.

The team was fighting it out in the bowels of the city where pipes ran in every which direction and where rooms opened up to large laboratories which looked like medieval chemistry sets.

Lopez grabbed Rubio's attention before they advanced forward to regroup with their team, "Listen man once we disarm the bomb, if we disarm it, we'll need to kill our own team. I mean how else are we supposed to keep it out of Ontiveros hands?"

Rubio chewed on his chapped lip, "Fuck! I've been thinking a way around that for a while but there's just no way we can get that bomb out of here in our hands. Shit this is messed up amigo." But Rubio agreed. They didn't want to betray their 'thrown together' team but at least it would look like the terrorists got them.

The Captain called on their radios asking for them to move up through the maze, they think they found the bomb.

After a few minutes of zigzagging through large damp tunnels they found their team inside a room that was glowing red in light. Rubio entered noticing the many dead scientists on the ground bathed in their own blood but it was hard to distinguish blood from other liquids because of the red heat lamps that surrounded the room. Lopez entered right behind him and fallowed the Captain deeper into the room until they fell upon what looked to be a large pot bellied oven. Only two commandos made it along with the Captain. The commando named Alex spoke up, "This is giving off large radiation waves Americans. So this is your bomb. I disassembled the remote detonation device here, but it is up to you to disarm and remove the bomb from the shell."

Rubio nodded and examined the bomb's shell. _Cast iron, sturdy of course. A panel here showing the bombs information, looks like we're in no rush. The top bay is closed, but don't open it until you know what's underneath. Okay here we go._

"Lopez calibrate your opsat to see what's inside. Then I'll see if I can open this thing up." Lopez began running his opsat's x-ray over the bomb creating a digital blueprint. It looked complicated.

"We'll have to hack the bomb just to open the top so we can extract the canister, then we can pull out the bombs contents which I don't want to do since it's radioactive. We get exposed to this and we'll all die." Lopez stated.

The Captain walked over to a dead scientist and took off the dead man's hazmat suit then threw it to Lopez. Gore dripped and oozed out of the opening. Lopez cursed under his breath and instead cut off the gloved hands and put them on. He motioned to Rubio who began hacking the device. _Okay 34…96…Oh shit! Fuck that was close…19… and, done! With 2.7 seconds to spare._

Rubio placed his opsat back on his wrist and Lopez did the same with his. The two agents made eye contact and nodded slightly just as Alex and the Captain pulled out their knives behind the two working agents. With a swift draw of the gun and pivot both Agents had their guns down on the astonished commandos. Once Rubio saw the knives in their hands his blood began to boil. He squeezed the trigger sending the .45 caliber round into Alex's forehead. The Captain leapt to his left dodging Lopez's round but before he could fire again the Captain lunged at him and buried his knife deep into Lopez's chest.

"FUCK!" Lopez screamed as he felt warm liquid seep into his clothing. The last man guarding outside burst into the room and released a sporadic burst of gun fire causing Rubio to hit the ground, roll then fire three consecutive rounds into the man's chest dropping him immediately. Rubio got up to a knee seeing the Captain withdraw his knife from Lopez's body. Rubio released three rounds into the Captain until the slide locked back on his pistol. The Captain buckled and screamed as he was getting shot but he looked up into Rubio's eyes with fire burning in his own. He charged Rubio but was easily subdued with a fist to the nose and then a violent twist of his neck. Bones snapped signifying his death. _Fuck, fuck, fuck! _"Lopez!" Rubio fell down at Lopez's side. He was breathing shallowly. Rubio knew Lopez didn't have much time as the knife pierced his heart and his left lung. Lopez looked into Rubio's eyes with agony as he clenched Rubio's jacket pulling on the fabric in a panic. "Lopez please tell me what to do! I don't- I don't know what to fucking do!" Lopez was wreathing in pain on the floor without making a sound, he couldn't as his lungs couldn't receive any oxygen. Rubio breathed heavily as Lopez's grip seized and relaxed. Rubio felt Lopez's eyes look past him as life left him. "Lopez?" Tears swelled in his eyes as he began to weep. Rubio cursed while clenching his friend's blood soaked hand. He knew he couldn't handle this type of work. He trained for intelligence, strictly observational, but now he was thrown into a situation only meant for a soldier. _It's not fair man. It wasn't supposed to be like this._ Tears rolled down his face. Suddenly Rubio heard echoes far down into the tunnels. _Men yelling orders_. Rubio wiped the tears from his eyes and climbed up to the bomb. With a swift pull from the top the entire bombs contents came out in a transparent vile. _How can a nuke be this small?_ The echoing voices neared closer. Rubio reloaded his pistol and wrapped the contents in the disposed hazmat suit then he collected Lopez's opsat and left the room. The voices were coming from the house's stairwell. Rubio decided to go the opposite direction through the maze of tunnels.

After a few minutes of running the tunnels eventually became filled ankle high with water. The voices were still on his heels. Rubio kept up the pace shuffling through the water until he heard a roaring rush of water up ahead. To his dismay the tunnel dropped down into a dark abyss as this tunnel connected with the city's sewer lines. _Fuck me. _The echoing voices of his pursuers were nearing. They knew exactly where he was going. _They're tracking the bomb's radioactivity. _Rubio unwrapped the vile and took a good long look at it for the first time. It was red and it looked like a liquid. _How can this be a nuclear bomb? _He took a look over his shoulder then tossed the vile into the abyss. It floated for a second only to sink into darkness. Rubio silently wadded down another tunnel where no voices could be heard bouncing off the walls. He continued to venture through the maze until he reached a ladder that led to the surface. Popping off the manhole cover Rubio gave his surroundings one good check then he bolted out and ran down the empty street only to stop once, he raised the opsat to his mouth and pressed the talk button. "This is Agent Rubio, mission complete," he heaved in and out before finishing, "Agent Lopez is dead. Get me out of here."

The voice on the other end replied, "An extraction team has been dispatched. Hold current location, you're coming home."

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><p>Please leave a quick review! Thanks for reading!<p> 


	2. 3E to 4E: The New Echelon Summary

_After 3__rd__ Echelon's disbandment the National Security Agency launched a massive investigation into it's so called "small operatives wing"._

_Under Lambert 3__rd__ Echelon was exactly what it was supposed to be, small and precise, however under Tom Reed he inflated the agency turning it into _

_his personal army. Unconstitutional to say the least, the NSA launched many secret investigations into the growing agency. Their efforts were _

_stymied by NSA agents that were bought out by Upper Echelon spies who were loyal to Reed and the new agencies intentions. However after 3__rd_

_Echelons terrorist attack on The United States and the President the NSA launched the largest national investigation ever conducted on an American agency. _

_They uncovered the Black Arrow, 3__rd__ Echelon, and Vice President relationship and began hunting down those responsible for crimes against the State. _

_Many 3__rd__ Echelon operatives and personnel were tried and convicted in the court of law many others were found innocent of any involvement, then _

_there was the Upper Echelon operatives who vanished taking their secrets with them. Amidst the fall of 3__rd__ Echelon the U.S. government relied on the _

_NSA and CIA agencies to gather intelligence on terrorist networks and hostile countries. The President soon realized the troubles inherited when _

_having bloated government agencies conduct the precise and fragile work that 3__rd__ Echelon was keen to. She instead ordered the formation of 4__th_

_Echelon to take over these high priority intelligence missions. While Reed's 3__rd__ Echelon was like a second CIA agency, 4__th__ Echelon _

_was small and reported only to the President who then was later convinced by the NSA director to have the agency report to him as well. Keeping the _

_new Echelon under a watchful eye was the NSA's main priority given their recent fallout, however the President knew she didn't have to worry since _

_the new Director of the agency was Sam Fisher. Fisher cut the agency down to a new low and slowly rebuilt it with people he and Grim could trust. _

_Slowly but surely 4__th__ Echelon began to look like its old counterpart, Lambert's 3__rd__ Echelon. _


	3. New Beginnings

_June 16__th__, 2015_

_11:51 A.M. _

_Washington D.C._

NSA Head Quarters

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><p>Disbanded 3rd Echelon Special Field Agent David McGee sat in the office of NSA Special Agent Johnathan Carmichael. John sat across from David thumbing through papers stopping at the occasional one only to read over it briskly then move on to the next sheet. The Office was quiet, small, and relatively blank save for the fake plant in the corner of the room. The absence of windows and no phone reception was the hint David received on his way to Johns office that this was a classified floor. No one gets in and no one gets out without stage 5 security clearance.<p>

David thought back towards this morning as John dug through the mounds of paper work in front of him. The morning _was_ going well, that is until three NSA agents showed up at his apartment. Being in great physical health, David found work on an oil rig in the frozen plains of North Dakota. It was the only job he could get after being exiled from the agency and being barred from all other federal jobs. The agents requested him to accompany them to the airport on a private flight to somewhere unknown. Once in D.C. he knew exactly where he was going and was all too familiar with the building he was in now.

John coughed and wiped his glasses clean before diving back into an open folder that read _classified._ David took a good long look at this "Special" agent, _nothing to special about the desk jockey and according to the thickness of his glasses he can't see shit._

Johnathan was of average height and was slimmed down and cut to the bone. He qualified for Field work in all categories, only his vision kept him from making the last step from becoming a true field agent. John continued to read through David's papers when he suddenly looked up from his glasses, "What were you doing in Paris, France on the night of 3rd Echelons terrorist attack on the white house?"

David sat up clearing his throat, "Uh well, I was conducting intelligence retrieval on a bank the _La Fierre _if I remember correctly. Agent Ramirez issued the order…"

John interrupted, "Yea I know who issued you the order to break into the bank, but why were you doing it? What was your objective?" He leaned in starring at David intensively.

David shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He didn't like talking about his 3rd Echelon past. When he served his nation as an Air force Chief Analyst he felt like he could do more and much better work so after his Air Force career he decided to go Federal. 3rd Echelon picked him up from the CIA and trained him into a top notch Splinter Cell or "intelligence interceptor". That at least is the name they gave you on paper. "I was on assignment to break into the bank and gather the bank's register list. I was to forward the information back to Agent Ramirez after I personally hacked the system." He swallowed hard knowing what he did was illegal after he was arrested, but didn't know it was not sanctioned while doing it.

John frowned, "well I must be confused David because here, right here," he pointed with emphasis to a paragraph on paper, "It says you were there to grab the names of the banks elite payers and THEN plant a virus into the system to then track them down and…" He waited for David to finish his sentence.

"I don't know anything about a virus sir nor do I know what the agency planned on doing with the names I received."

John sat back in his chair and cracked a smile, "Bullshit."

David's eyes widened. "Excuse me sir?" He's been through all of this before time and time again with NSA investigators. "I've been cleared multiple times of any criminal involvement so I'm not going to sit here and listen to your damned opinions sir."

John slammed his fists down onto his desk, "you were working hand in hand with an Upper Echelon agent! You knew what was going on!" John began leaning over the desk. "You're not some dumb animal David! You knew exactly what Ramirez intended to do with that information and i want to know if you knew about it or not." John looked unto David's now simmering demeanor, yet he remained silent. "Well then, I guess you really are absent minded and ignorant to your fucking surroundings to not notice your mission's TRUE objectives."

David exploded from his seat prompting John to do the same. David leaned in close over the desk and pointed a finger in John's face, "I was in the dark. I WAS doing my job that WAS sanctioned by 3rd Echelon and I had no reason to doubt my superior at the time. My mission's objectives did not include assassination nor did it require me to plant a virus in the bank. I was to seek who the banks buyers were and that was it." David turned from John and started for the door.

John's voice boomed past David, "I'm not done! You take one step outside this room and I'll have you arrested and sent to the smallest darkest cell I can find in Gitmo!" John clenched his fists.

David paused taking in a deep breath. He turned around facing Johnathan and threw up his arms, "Tell me then why are you talking with me? What am I doing here? I've served my country proudly and all of a sudden I'm considered and treated like a traitor, again!" There was an awkward silence for a moment. John took a deep breath of air, restoring normal color to his reddened face, calming him down.

Jonathan wiped the sweat from his forehead and plopped back down in his seat. He took another deep breath and looked back up to David, "Would you please take a seat before I have a fucking aneurysm?" David was hesitant but reluctantly did so given he didn't have a choice. "Okay look, I've been tasked to read through your previous training and background missions while in 3rd Echelon and during your time in the CIA." A confused look swept over David's face. "I'm to recruit you for a mission." David's heart began to race.

"A mission for who? The NSA?"

John shook his head and looked David in the eye, "A mission for 4th Echelon." David's face lit up.

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><p>Tell me what you think about this new Splinter Cell. There is more to come. This story is not only about my made up character but given that there isn't many known Splinter Cells, and Sam Fisher is getting older and has bigger responsibilities, I had to make one up. Please review and thanks for reading! Fallow too if you wish, no harm done if you do.<p> 


	4. Remember the Barn?

_After the quarrel between the two agents, John briefed David over the JBA's attempts to detonate three nuclear devices in New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. That was known by almost everybody, but what David didn't know was that the red mercury in Mexico City was lost and wasn't recovered. 3rd Echelon forgot about the red mercury while under Reeds control. The Mexican revolution in 2013 along with the Engineers' attacks on America further pushed the red mercury out of the agencies mind. Finally a NSA analyst unburied a 3rd Echelon file showing the accounts of the raid on Massoud Ibin-Yussif's compound. The analyst was shocked to find that the red mercury was lost and not recovered in the city's sewer system. The NSA director wanted to send a unit to Mexico City immediately to find the mercury and bring it back to the States. However after the Mexican war American forces were not going to be openly welcomed and press would be all over the NSA agents so the task was left up to 4th Echelon. A quiet unofficial mission is what the director wanted and they needed a team to do it. _

* * *

><p>After the briefing David sat there both excited and shocked over his new status, 4th Echelon Splinter Cell. He'll have to go through another training session to prove his Field operational status, but other than that he is now back in the agency. David cleared his throat before speaking, "So sir, who will I be working with?"<p>

Johnathan cracked another smile from the corner of his mouth, "I'm to be your mission's handler and we'll have 4th Echelon support personnel with us too. I'm picking this team specifically David so I hope you won't disappoint. All I have to do now is interview two more men and we'll be mission ready." Agent Carmichael opened a folder reveling papers that have been blackened out by CIA censors. "For now though you're to be on a plane to the Barn, try not to be too rusty." Johnathan stood up and shook David's hand. "I'm glad to have you on the team. I know that your past with 3rd Echelon was in no way related with Reed, I just had to make sure of it for the Director's sake." And with that David left the office of his newly acquainted mission's handler and was escorted to the airport where a private plane took him to the CIA's training facility otherwise known as the Barn.

While on the flight soaring high above the clouds, David couldn't think of anything else at the moment except for his previous "sessions" at the Barn. It was cruel, extremely unusual, and often mentally scarring. He was trained to withstand certain tortures and to deny any information if captured and interrogated. He was trained in the art of concealment and how to use the shadows to hide from enemies. Learning how to fight using Krav Maga was another memory that he thought back too. Sam Fisher was his instructor at the time, but instead of being a Splinter Cell candidate David was in the CIA. He remembered back when he had to attack Sam for training purposes.

David was in a room filled with men and women circled around their instructor. "Now come at me any way you want kid." Sam's voice was unique and intimidating unlike many of the young 'special agent' wannabe's who were attending his class. "Use what I taught you and apply any previous skills to compliment your takedown."

"Uh, half speed or…?"

"Full. As lethal as you can be, try to incapacitate me." A grin flashed across Sam's face.

_I don't want to hurt the guy but…he did say try._

David threw his neck side to side cracking it. He took in his instructor's stance. It was solid yet elegant like he could float away at any second. However he looked lethal the way his arms were raised with open palms facing David, ready to deflect any punches. David took a step forward throwing a straight jab at Sam's face knowing it was to be deflected, then he dropped and performed a leg sweep with a wide kick sending Sam's legs out from under him however instead of landing on his back he pivoted in midair and landed in a crouched position. Now face to face, Sam grabbed David's face and thrusted him back onto his ass. Sensing a grapple or tap out maneuver David rolled onto his back, to his shoulders then he pushed himself up using the momentum to put himself on his feet in a split second. Readying himself for a charging Sam, David threw his hands up preparing to deflect any punches yet none came. David stood shocked looking forward where Sam should have been but wasn't. Spinning 360 degrees didn't reveal him either meaning he was hiding in the crowd of students surrounding him. _ He could strike from anywhere. _David thought. Preparing himself for an attack from all sides, David waited for him. Suddenly he caught a scent of him, he smelt of a minty fragrance from a body wash or something, so he spun around yet there was no Fisher. Hands wrapped around David's neck in a vice like grip. An exclaimed yelp escaped from his mouth as Fisher responded, "Dead." He dropped from the rafters from above that gave the Barn's hand-to-hand combat center it's informal and unfriendly look.

David stood there wide eyed looking up above noticing the dark hiding space that Sam took advantage of. Sam spoke up silencing the students who were commenting on their teacher's skills in evasion, "As a lone operative your best bet to survival is not on brute force, but instead on cunning tactics. Evade, strike, and survive all in the cover of darkness. That is your home your sanctuary if you find yourself in danger. So sure you young kids could probably out muscle me, but can you out maneuver me?" Sam winked at David and cracked a smile. "Class dismissed."

David wiped the sweat from his forehead after coming back to reality. So all in all, the Barn was intense and he wasn't sure if he was looking forward to it or was instead dreading it.

* * *

><p><em>June 16th, 2015<em>

_2:52 P.M. _

_Somewhere in Virginia_

Private landing strip outside the Barn

* * *

><p>The plane touched down at a private landing strip somewhere in Virginia. Its exact whereabouts remain classified though. Two men came aboard and escorted David towards the hangar where a black sedan was waiting for him. The windows were blackened out in the back and a reinforced divider sat between him and the driver, sort of like the ones in cop cars yet this one was solid metal. The two escorts sat on both sides of David too, their broad shoulders forcing David to hunch forward. <em>Hmm…I remember there being a potato sack being thrown over my face the last time. I wonder if they're getting softer on the training. <em>After a short drive the sedan made an abrupt stop throwing David's face into the metal divider. _Ouch. _Suddenly the man on the left of David opened his door and grabbed David by the neck dragging him out violently. The second guy pushed him and once out they threw him hard to the ground and leaned in close, "Welcome to the Barn old man." The other man chuckled as they both climbed back in the sedan and sped off. _Old man? I'm only in my thirties. _But most men and women in this profession never got to see themselves turn thirty. David stood up and brushed himself off as he observed the large warehouse complex that contained all the goodies the Barn was famous for.

"Well there's no turning back now." He walked up to the rustic looking door that led into the lobby. Grabbing the door knob and heaving in one last breath of fresh air, he opened the door and entered the Barn.


	5. Shaking Off The Rust

_June 16th, 2015_

_4:00 P.M. _

_Somewhere in Virginia_

CIA training facility

* * *

><p>Greetings were warm and fuzzy between him and the man holding the Taser that sent 50,000 volts of electricity through him. Wide eyed and incapacitated, David saw a group of men approach him only to throw a bag over his head and heave him up and off to some undisclosed location. <em>Well, that explains the absence of the bag in the car. <em>The men dumped David on his back and all he could hear was their footsteps then a door slam shut. He ripped off the bag and stood up. Blinding white light met his eyes as a voice reverberated off the walls of the tiny white tiled room.

"David McGee you are now a candidate for retraining in a classified government operations wing. Participating in this retraining course could result in injury or death to your person for which the United States Government and its affiliated agencies are not responsible for. Do you understand? Good. Please continue through the red door to your left."

The red door opened up to a long and dark hallway with one way glass lining the whole way. A sound was heard in David's ear. It sounded like a high pitched ringing then static. He rubbed his ear when the thought hit him. _They're reactivating my subdermal implant. _

"Hey can you hear me David?" It was Johnathan.

"Yes sir, loud and clear."

"Good. We're going to put you through three tests here just to shake the rust off okay? First test is simple you're to navigate through this hallway and enter the door at the end. You cannot make any noise okay? Good luck."

_No noise? _David focused in the low light and noticed broken glass covering the floor. _Damn._ He looked up and noticed a pipe running the length of the hallway but there were chains and other junk hanging from the ceiling too. David tip toed forward avoiding the chunks of glass until he felt he could make a comfortable wall jump up to the pipe. He performed a wall split to get up to the pipe and grabbed on only to slip off sending him back to the ground. He absorbed the shock of the landing by crouching as he made contact with the ground, fortunately he didn't land on any glass. _Pipes greased, just great. _This time he wall split then he quickly grabbed the pipe and threw his legs around it in order to not lose his grip. He snaked the course of the hallway avoiding the chains that hung all around him. He made a dismount at the end and entered the door.

The room looked like the same white tiled room before but this time it contained a small round table with a gun and opsat on top. Johnathan came in over the net, "This test requires a little more strength over finesse, I think. Take a terrorist leader hostage while staying undetected. That's all I can tell you. The pistol contains simunition and the opsat has a map of the area. Good luck." It sounded like John was reading his objectives from a flash card.

David put the opsat over his wrist and opened up the map. It was a single story warehouse with a loft that had a clear view of the bottom area. He closed the map and checked the pistol which was a Glock 22 chambered in .40 caliber. He tucked the pistol away in his cargo pants and opened the door to the next test. The surrounding area was a mechanics warehouse filled with broken down car parts and tools scattered about. It was dark, messy, and quiet. David crouched down and advanced forward into the warehouse. Five CIA operatives were brought in to serve as "terrorists". They were told to protect the leader and to scan the warehouse periodically for intruders. One of them was going down a row of shelves stacked with tools and buckets of grease. He was about to round the corner when a hand reached out from the side slapping him in the throat stunning his vocal cords then he was thrown to the ground. A choke hold was immediately thrown around his neck before he could react. David whispered in his ear, "Tell me where your leader is and you won't get hurt."

The guy on the ground replied, "How-about you throw in a _please_ and we could talk." David squeezed his wind pipe making him gag. "Okay! Okay! Damn you guys take this training stuff seriously. He's up in the loft on the, uh, I think the east side?" He motioned left with his head.

David smiled, "Thanks bud, but uh, you do know that I can't let you go right?"

"Wait what?!" David put the guy to sleep. He confirmed his suspicions to where their leader was now he just needed to get up there. David continued to creep through the warehouse coming upon another roaming terrorist who he avoided. Coming up to the loft he saw a large ventilation shaft. He pulled up the 3D map and found that the shaft led up to the loft. He crawled up the shaft keeping his footing when he reached the loft he peered through the shaft opening and saw a guy standing near a window that overlooked the warehouse's interior. _Gotcha. _David leapt from the vent and drew his gun. The man spun around with a shocked expression on his face. Hazel eyes met his yet that's all David could see cause the man was cladded in black along with a balaclava only revealing his eyes.

David rose his gun and placed a finger over his lips whispering, "Shhh." The guy nodded yet his eyes broke off of his and darted towards the door that led to the loft. David glanced over and noticed it was still closed yet there was a creak on the outside of the door. David closed the distance and grabbed the guy hostage. The guy was light and was easily maneuvered to act as a bullet shield if need be. He waited for an entry team of some sort but none came. "Are you the leader?" David whispered and the leader nodded. David told Johnathan that the leader was captured.

"Okay test complete, I guess. That seemed easy." Johnathan sounded surprised.

David released his hostage and replied, "Yea, I guess I'm not that rusty after all."

The leader turned around and faced David. He took off his balaclava reveling that _he_ was actually a _she_. _Anna Grimsdottir. _She rubbed her neck and looked David in the eye, "Good job McGee, I wasn't expecting that move at all." She whistled and four guys walked in. "They were setting an ambush for you at the top of the stair case but you avoided it cleanly." She nodded her head in approval. "You past the test and have one more to go before you're ready, Tyler, escort Agent McGee to the final testing center." A CIA agent nodded and waved for David to fallow him. As David left the room he wanted to apologize for throwing a hard arm around her neck but knew that she wouldn't accept it. She would think apologizing for that would be ridiculous. The test was being set up again for some reason as he was escorted to another door. _It must be for the other two Splinter Cells that Johnathan picked out. _

He was led to a pool that was twenty feet deep. It was scuba training. David suited up and donned the scuba gear and was met by a trainer. "You're to be rushed through this section for some reason sir, but don't worry I'll prepare you the best I can." The young trainer was bulking with muscles. _Oh great. _ "You're to recover this bottle sir," He showed him a water bottle filled with concrete, "return to the surface with this and you're done." _Easy enough. _The trainer called out a few names and two guys appeared with scuba gear on too. They also had a bag full of dye that they dumped into the pool turning it into a murky brown color. David looked at the trainer and shook his head, "I'll need a flashlight."

"No sir, you'll need this." He gave him a Geiger counter. "The bottles core has a small radiation trace on it and you're to detect it using that device only." He looked over at the other two divers and nodded. They jumped into the pool and disappeared under the surface. "Good luck sir."

David waddled over to the edge of the pool and peered down into the mucky brown water. _So this is supposed to represent the Mexican sewer? _He put in the breathing respirator and jumped in. The Geiger counter was advanced. It was showing the placement of the radioactive material instead of just showing the intensity. David swam down until he caught movement to his left. He paused starring off into the darkness knowing that those divers were either there to help monitor him or make things harder. A large blow struck him in the right side forcing him to cough out his respirator. He twirled in the water seeing nothing. After trailing the respirator line to his mouth piece he attempted to place it in his mouth but couldn't. _Don't panic, you'll just burn your oxygen. _He retraced his line and found out it was tied to his oxygen tank. _Sneaky bastards. _He untangled the knot and placed the respirator back in his mouth and began diving again. When he finally reached the water bottle he secured it and began the ascension. He saw movement again and made out the faint lining of a diver. The guy was swimming at him ready to send another blow into David, but this time David reached out and smacked the guy's goggles off his head throwing him off balance. Another second past and they were bobbing on the surface.

The trainer helped David out of the water while the other two divers surfaced. One of them had red irritated eyes from the dye. The trainer led him to the locker room to get dressed and to await further command from his handler. While in the locker room David couldn't help but think about the Mexican revolution and what it's done between American and Mexican relations. He remembered the nuclear devices that were prepared to launch yet they were destroyed before they could devastate America. There's still a lot of resentment towards America for getting involved in the war. However what other alternative was there?

After getting fully dressed back in his civilian clothes, still heavily insulated since he couldn't change out his winter wear, David met Johnathan in the ops center where video monitors replayed his tests. "I guess you're ready David. We'll be on a plane within the hour to Mexico City. All we're waiting on is the other two guys…" The door opened and two men walked in, still damp from what looks like the water test. "Ah, these are the two Splinter Cells that would be accompanying you on this mission. Special Agent Bob and Special Agent Steve." The three shook hands. "We go by first names and first names only okay?" The men nodded. "Now you all have experience and would usually be conducting this mission alone, however the objective in which we must secure could be in many locations and time is of the essence. All three of you would be inserted into the sewer system below the city where we think the red mercury might be located." He paused for a second. "No one knows about this little stunt and I would like to keep it that way. I'll brief you some more on the flight to Mexico." He looked nervous. "Let's go."


	6. That didn't go according to plan

_June 17th, 2015_

_11:22 P.M. _

_United States Continental Air Space_

_Near the Mexican border_

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><p>The agents were briefed on their new identities on their way to Mexico. They were to disguise themselves as Canadian water workers who were to help diagnose and repair any problems that lay beneath the city. A CIA operative is to pick them up from the airport then take them to a motel. That's all the involvement the U.S. government will have in this operation. After the quick briefing Steven, Bob, and David got well acquainted with one another. Bob and Steve were particularly excited about their partnership because they worked together during the Korean crisis in 2007. David listened imitatively as the two agents reminisced past operations. Steven brought up the time when they worked with Sam fisher. They commented on his unusual but effective techniques.<p>

Now being in the loop, all four agents knew who Sam Fisher was now. He was their boss, director of 4th Echelon. They all knew he single handedly defused WW3 during the Korean crisis and he also dismantled 3rd Echelon saving the president of the United States.

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><p><em>June 18th, 2015<em>

_1:02 A.M. _

_Mexico City, Mexico_

_Benito Juárez International Airport_

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><p>As the private plane was taxied in the agents scanned over their fake identities one last time. John spoke up, "We'll meet our friend in terminal 2. He'll escort us to the safe house and we'll go from there. Let's just get past security first okay?" The men nodded and grabbed their gear.<p>

Bob spoke up, "Yea remember to put on your best Canadian accents lads."

"Eh?" Steve laughed.

The men were greeted by airport security and were escorted to terminal two where the CIA agent took them to the motel. Upon pulling into the motel parking lot the agent went over a few things before departing.

The CIA agent described the area plus what and what not to do. He gave John a map of the city and then of the underground sewer system. John already had every schematic he needed on his OPSAT and tablet. The CIA agent then handed over the keys to a beat up sedan that was parked nearby, "Equipment's in the trunk." With that the men filed out of the SUV and walked over to the sedan. The agent pulled away and they were left alone in the desolate parking lot. John popped the trunk revealing polymer weapons cases. A smirk shot across Bob's face. The men gathered their equipment and entered the beat up motel room. It smelt of cigarettes and cleaning product. First thing David did was walk over to his bed and rip off the covers. Bed bugs shot in every direction.

"For fuck's sake." Steve glanced at the infestation and shivered John frowned and took a step back. Bob being the last one in set his equipment down and plopped onto the other bed. David, John, and Steven simultaneously yelled, "NOOO!" Bob sprang up drawing his gun and scanned the room looking for a threat.

"What the hell?!" Bob's confusion dissipated as David ripped off the corner sheet from his bed. "Oh hell, that got you freaked out? I almost shit myself guys. That reaction is reserved only for monster spiders and killer clowns hiding under the bed not fucking bed bugs, shit." He fell back and sprawled out onto the bed forcing a disgusted reaction from the rest of the team. "My clothes are washed in bug resistant chemicals, that's right I came prepared." He smirked.

The team got settled in and went over their equipment. First it was their scuba gear, then the electronics, op suits, and finally the guns. Each splinter cell had a FN 2000 with suppressor. Each man had his preferred side arm too. John sat the men down at a table once they swept for listening devices.

"Okay, time for the briefing." The four agents began devising a plan over the course of an hour.

John spoke up and pointed to a spot on the city sewer system map, "This is where the NSA agents lost the nuclear device. I suggest you enter through this manhole and walk the fifty or so yards to the drop off and dive in from there."

John programmed the maps into the 4th Echelon agent's OPSATs as Bob chimed in. "So it's been what, seven years since it was lost? How do we know it didn't get sucked up or moved somewhere else, let alone destroyed?"

John pulled out some water plans and showed them to Bob, "These canals have been broken down since, well, since forever. Water flow is almost nonexistent so we're thinking that the bombs contents being, small and dense, they shouldn't have drifted far. They aren't processing the water from these canals either so it should be in either sectors A, B, or C."

David chimed in, "one for the each of us." Bob and Steve nodded. "And we know that the red mercury is contained?"

John inhaled a deep breath, "I have reason to believe by studying the other bombs schematics that the vile, in which the red mercury is contained in, should be shatter resistant and erosion resistant. It shouldn't have leached into the water." The agents nodded. "If it does though say bye-bye to Mexico City because even though the water won't be recycled into public use the radiation would leach up into the earth and plague the city with dangerous radiation levels. This stuff is highly potent."

As night neared the agents prepared to move out. David was to drive them to the manhole where they were to infiltrate the canals. From there it was up to the splinter cells to locate and retrieve the nuclear material. John was to stay in the safe house in order to keep an eye on things.

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><p><em>June 18th, 2015<em>

_4:43 A.M. _

_Mexico City, Mexico_

_Motel Room_

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><p>Bob laid out on his bed snoozing. Steve was checking over his oxygen tank and David was talking with John. John told him a detailed story about the events when the NSA surveillance team raided Massoud Ibin-Yussif's compound. Two agents were sent in to work with the Mexican authorities, specifically the ones who they were spying on, in disarming the nuclear bomb. John was getting hyped up as he continued, "Both agents went in and disarmed the bomb, but they couldn't hand it over to the Mexicans, so they needed to waste their own guys! How crazy is that situation? Anyways the agents found out that the Mexican guys were going to slit their throats once they hacked the bomb and released the nukes contents. So they ended up killing all the special ops guys, but one of the NSA agents got killed during the shootout. The other guy ran down the canals and ditched the contents either in canals A, B, or C."<p>

David frowned, "Why didn't he just keep it?"

"More spec ops guys were tracking it down with a gig counter. Once in the water the depths would hide the radiation levels from their crappy counters." He shook his head, "We're helping to save this city from nuclear poisoning, yet these people don't officially want our help. They just want this new tech to blow people up."

David agreed, "That's usually how it is."

Johns OPSAT buzzed and he left David for the bathroom. John emerged from the bath room moments later and clapped his hands exciting a grunt from Bob, "Alright people I just got off the phone with the director of 4th Echelon, missions a go." Bob wiped the sleep from his eyes and Steve packed his gear. The three splinter cells loaded up their gear in the sedan and David drove them to their destination. Luckily the city street was empty as Steven pried the cap off the manhole. The three splinter cells slipped inside and navigated throughout the dark tunnels using their trifocal goggles and glow sticks.

David looked down at his feet and picked up a spent cartridge and showed it to Bob, "I guess we're on the right track."

Eventually they came to the drop off where the canal went straight down into the murky water. The men suited up and began the dive. With Geiger counters on they swam down the pitch black waters. Night vision wouldn't work down there, even if there was light. It was too murky with human feces and waste. A special feature in the agents new goggles were sonar vision. The sonar beams bounced off the walls of the canals as the agents continued their search looking for any sign of radio activity.

Suddenly David's subdermal sounded, "Any sign yet?" David responded along with Bob and Steve. Nothing yet.

"Hold up! What the hell are you doing in my sector?" Bob called out over the teams subdermals. David and Steve couldn't see anyone near them, meaning…

David responded, "It's not me."

Steve agreed, "Not me either Bob, no one's near me."

"Then who the hell is this!? I've got a guy in scuba gear swimming towards me. No way he could see me but I've got him at eleven yards straight ahead on sonar."

John was flipping through any news about sewer reconstruction in their area and came up with nothing. He put his tablet down and reported, "No news on reconstruction down there. So either he's a tourist who got cheated out of swimming with the dolphins or he could be looking for our bomb."

"Should I ask him?" Bob sounded eager.

"What? No, I repeat you do not have the fifth freedom!"

The mystery diver swam closer to Bob not being able to see him. However the guy was holding something, it looked like a wand. He pointed it towards Bob and stopped he then corrected course and swam underneath him. "The guy's using point-and-shoot sonar. I also have an electronic signal coming from the guy. I'll hack it and see what it's for." Bob fallowed the diver and hacked the signal sending it to John.

John picked apart the code and found out it was a gig counter that was relaying information to a computer. John hacked the computer but then was shut down immediately. He sat there frozen for a second not knowing what happened. Suddenly his tablet came back to life showing the NSA tracking locator app that's embedded in the tablet. It was pulsating meaning it was activated. John tried tapping out of the program but nothing worked. _What the? _He tried to shut off the device but it wouldn't shut down. He began to feel panicky. He lost control of his everything, his map, objectives, data, everything. _I've been hacked. _He exploded from his seat and slammed the tablet to the ground and proceeded to stomp on it until it died. Using his OPSAT he contacted his agents, "I've been hacked! Whoever is in control of that electrical signal knows where I am!"

David's eyes widened, "Get out of there sir!"

John hesitated. "Our OPSATS, they were linked to my tablet. If he hacked my tablet far enough he could know where you are! You need to get out now!"

"Where do we go?! Do we go…" John cut Steve off.

"No locations! We go to the Tree House, understood?" Tree House was code for the U.S. embassy.

Bob came in over the net, "I'm going to take this guy to the surface. I'll regroup with you guys later." Before John could protest his OPSAT died.

"DAMMIT!" He packed his things then took off towards the embassy. Not having a car didn't stop him from stealing one parking outside.

David swirled around the canal and headed back towards his insertion point, Steve did the same. Bob was fallowing the mystery diver who broke the surface and climbed up from his submerged canal. Bob slowly poked his head from the water and watched the diver shed his scuba gear. The diver raised a walkie talkie and began speaking fluent Arabic. A hectic voice replied and the diver made a b-line down the canal. Bob sprang from the water and drew his pistol shooting the guy in his calf causing him to tumble and scrape across the dirty floor. Bob popped a flare and switched his vision mode to infrared. He approached the downed diver who was clutching his leg in agony. "Where's the walkie talkie?"

The man shook his head. "No English."

"Yeah only when it's convenient." He popped off another round that sailed past his head which reverberated off the canal walls.

"Okay okay!" He handed over the device which David turned off.

"What are you doing down here?" The man remained stubbornly silent. Bob stepped on his wound exciting a scream from him. "I won't ask again."

He looked Bob in the eye, "We found it. We found it and will use it!" He began to laugh forcing Bob to apply more pressure to his wound.

"Who are you?" He asked with a growl.

The man answered with a smirk, "We will build an empire from the ashes of the free world for we are the engine...ah!" A bullet ripped through the man's forehead.

"I've heard enough." _Fifth freedom exercised. _The splinter cell's OPSATS were down too so they had no way of communicating with John, but they could still get into contact with each other using their subdermal implants. "I found out who we're dealing with." The other two men asked who. "The Engineers. And by the looks of it they were looking for our bomb too and possibly found it." Bob went through the diver's equipment and pulled out a gig counter.

"Then we've got to get out of here and quick. I lost contact with John since our OPSATs are dead. Shit." Steve was still under water. He looked around and shook his head. "That OPSAT was my map, but I'll retrace my steps. Rendezvous at the surface."

David and Steve finally reached the surface where they dove in initially. Bob was there waiting for them after he navigated through the tunnels too. "Well let's go." The men armed themselves and climbed to the surface. As they climbed from the manhole the city was awakening. Women held their mouths closed as they saw men cladded in black brandishing futuristic rifles climb up from the depths of the city. David helped Steve out and was in the process of helping Bob when the screech of tires got his attention. Down the street a car turned sharp and came barreling towards them. David shoved Bob's head back down the manhole as Steve grabbed David's waist and pulled him away from the car's path. The car slammed its brakes after sailing past them and two men got out holding Ak-47s. David and Steven laid prone firing bursts into the first man dropping him instantly. The second guy fired fully automatic fire at the two splinter cells striking Steve in the side. Bob poked his head out and fired into the guy multiple times but he wouldn't go down. Expending his entire magazine into the Engineer finally took the fight from the radical as he slid down the side of the car and thudded hard into the pavement. Dogs barked and people screamed as they locked their doors barring themselves from the violence out on the street. Bob turned around the manhole just as another car zoomed over his head smacking his goggles off and sending his head into the metal manhole liner. David reloaded his FN 2000 and let it rip into the side of the fleeing car. As the car turned the corner down the street the passenger let loose a volley of automatic fire in his direction. Bullets skipped off of the asphalt sparking where they hit.

Turning his attention to Steve, David looked over his wound and asked him the question everyone asks when they're hurt, "You okay?"

Steven shook his head, "No I've been shot!" He tried to say it sarcastically yet his voice trembled making him sound panicked.

David turned to see if Bob emerged from the manhole. He ran over to the manhole just as Bob cautiously poked his head out scanning both direction down the road. David yanked him out. He was obviously concussed cause he just laid there trying to get his bearings.

"Steven get your ass up and help Bob." Steven winced as he supported Bob. David kicked down the door to a building and led the men inside. Once inside they took refuge further in the building. It looked like it was the lobby of a third world apartment complex. "We go up." David supported both Bob and Steve as they ascended to the roof. By the time they got there his legs were on fire and his vision was tunneling. Breathing heavily David went over his options. If they get captured by Mexican authorities they'll be denied by the U.S. government. "We need to get to the embassy now." But they couldn't make the run in daylight and in the condition they were in. Stealing a car wouldn't be easy either since the whole cities awake.

Their subdermals sounded, "Hold your position. Evac is on its way." It was Grim. He didn't know Grim was listening in on their op, but he guessed she decided to once shit hit the fan.

"Wilco. Any word on our handler ma'am?" No response.

The splinter cells sat on the roof guns trained at the door that led to the roof. Eventually a helo flew overhead. "I'm coming in to pick you guys up. Is it clear?" David responded. The helo flew hovering feet above the roof top. David helped Bob and Steve inside. Once in David put on a communications set to talk to the pilot.

"Thanks for the pickup sir." The pilot shook his head as they lifted off. The look on the pilots face sent a sting of disappointment which hit him in the gut.

"Everyone okay? No life threatening injuries?" David looked at Steven then Bob, "No we're banged up but we'll make it."

They past the U.S. embassy and headed towards the airport. David's stomach sank. _They're putting us on a plane home. _He knew he failed the agency and possibly Sam saw that he and his team were just not good enough to get the job done. They landed on a helipad and were greeted by a black SUV. The pilot helped Steven in as Bob and David got in also. The SUV pulled into a large hangar which housed what looked to be a C-17 Globemaster III. A medical crew awaited them and took them into the plane's infirmary and began administering medical treatment. As David sat there with an IV in his arm Sam Fisher came in and looked over the injured splinter cells. He looked pissed. David rose from his seat as Fisher walked to him.

"Looks like we got our asses handed to us." He looked David in the eye.

"It was an ambush sir. Engineers hacked our handlers tablet and our OPSATs sir. They knew where we were."

Fisher shook his head, "They shouldn't have known about the red mercury. We weren't supposed to face any opposition either." Fisher was talking mostly to himself. He was slowly digesting the news and was thinking how the Engineers found out about the red mercury.

"Sir, my handler Johnathan. Did he make it to the embassy?" Fisher looked up from the floor as Anna entered the infirmary.

She was waiting outside but listened in on the conversation, "We lost contact with Johnathan Carmichael after his OPSAT went dead. However Mexican authorities are reporting a white male got ran off the road and then kidnapped by what they believe to be cartel members. Witnesses described the man and it matches Johnathan's profile." She looked to Sam who ran his fingers through his graying hair.

"Tell Charlie to get us that hacker's location." He then looked at the pilot, "Briggs get the chopper ready." Briggs nodded and left. Fisher then looked at David, "Come on, we've got a score to settle."

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><p>Thanks for reading and please post a review to help me out. This is one of my first stories so constructive criticism will be appreciated.<p> 


	7. Fallowing the lead

Remember to please leave a review and stuff. Please help me out as I write up this story!

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><p><em>June 18th, 2015<em>

_10:03 A.M. _

_Mexico City, Mexico_

_Benito Juárez International Airport_

* * *

><p>David fallowed Sam into the belly of the Globemaster III or the C-147B Paladin from what the crew called it. Responsive touch screen tables and monitors were everywhere with personnel manning some of the stations. The room was in a frenzy which created a typical Hollywood war room look. Sam went to the middle of the platform and stood near a table, he logged in and it became responsive. A world map popped up on the main screen and he zoomed in on Mexico City. A man named Charlie sprang from his seat and approached Sam.<p>

"I've got a trace on that laptop Sam." He was holding a tablet with the coordinates. He brushed the map from his tablet to the large screen on the SMI.

Sam thanked Charlie and nodded signaling him to sit back down and keep working. He then pressed his subdermal, "Briggs is the bird ready? Good." Anna walked up to Sam just as Sam turned for the exit, "Let's go David." David nodded as Anna grabbed Sam by the arm prompting a confused look to dart from Sam.

"Director, sir, we need to coordinate from here." She shot him a daring stare saying, _you better not leave this plane. _

Sam huffed, "You'll do just fine without me Grim." He pulled his arm free and Anna stepped in front of him pissing Sam off. "Get out of my way Anna." He said it with authority, but it didn't faze Grim.

"You're getting too old for this type of work Sam, besides your mission is to lead these men from here. You're not a splinter cell anymore, you're the director of 4th Echelon, Sam." Her voice was blunt and to the point. Shock flickered across Sam's face for a second just before a smirk replaced it.

"Don't put me in diapers yet Grim. I'll check myself into a retirement home once I get senile." Sam side stepped past Grim.

Her face went red then she couldn't help whispering, "If you're lucky you'll be able to see the day where you check into one, old man." David fallowed Sam out the exit.

Charlie looked around being the only one amongst the bustling crew to notice the disagreement between Sam and Grim, "Well, that was awkward." He spun around and continued working.

Sam and David geared up and were about to catch a ride to the helipad when Bob emerged from the Paladin, "Hold up! I'm coming with you."

Sam shook his head, "You're banged up son. The doc said you've got a bad concussion so you'll have to sit this one out, okay kid? Besides," He motioned towards David, "We've got this handled so don't worry." They jumped into a SUV which sped off leaving Bob staring after them.

Once in the air Charlie led Briggs straight to the hacker's computer. It was in a large apartment complex not far from the red mercury's last known location. Briggs asked if Sam wanted to parachute in, but there was no time for that approach. They needed to land on top and sweep down. As they approached Grim's voice came across the team's subdermals, "Briggs! Get out of there now!" Brigg's was about to protest until emergency lights flashed across the cockpit. A missile was inbound coming from the apartment complex. Brigg's pulled an evasive maneuver and was able to shake the RPG, until another one lit up the cockpits dash again. Sam and David were thrown side to side as Brigg's yelled for them to bail. Fisher threw on his chute with incredible speed as David struggled to get his on. Suddenly a large orange ball of fire engulfed the helicopter. Briggs yelled one last time before bailing, Sam fallowed with David on his heels. Sam yelled for them to land on the apartment's roof, missions still a go. As they descended a hostile was spotted reloading his RPG as the helicopter fell in a big fire ball in the background. He didn't see the splinter cells descending through the smoke. Briggs drifted in and kicked his teeth out as he flared his chute. As Sam touched down he got ahold of Grim and told her to get the Paladin ready to take off once they got back, the Mexican authorities were sure gonna want an explanation to this and the U.S. government would be able to deny all involvement in this op.

Sam looked at Briggs who had irritated eyes from the smoke. "Briggs keep the roof top secured, warn us if any federales or Engineers show up." He then motioned to David, "Dave I need you to watch my back." With that they breached the top floor and worked their way down to the second floor. Passing by shocked and scarred citizens, they stacked up outside the hacker's door. Using the snake cam Sam saw that the door was wired with explosives. He shook his head and they stacked up on the adjacent room and breached using a lock pick. David combed the apartment and saw a young women leaning out the window watching emergency personnel fight the fire from the wrecked helo down the block. Sam began placing charges on the wall that separated them from the hacker's room as David crept behind the girl. He was only going to restrain her until she brought a walkie talkie to her mouth and began briefing other Engineers on what was going on outside. David knocked the walkie talkie from her hands and placed her in a choke hold. He squeezed her windpipe slightly and whispered for her to stop resisting.

"Who are you?" The girl reached back trying to scratch David's eyes. He squeezed and asked again.

She panted and answered, "Who do you think American?" Her voice was filled with hatred.

"Where's your prisoner? Tell the truth or you'll see the room through the eyes of an owl."

She smiled, "We already got what we wanted out of him, he _was _of no use to us anymore."

Fisher walked around and looked her in the eye, "Is this whole floor rented out to the Engineer's?" She spat in his face forcing David to flex his grip again. Fisher wiped the spit from his eyes and calmly pulled his knife and placed it over her heart. "I don't have time to play your games. Is it or is it not?" She didn't answer. Fisher nodded and David lifted her off her feet until her legs quit kicking. He then violently snapped her neck confirming the kill. David laid her body down quietly and joined Sam at the charges he placed.

Brigg's came in over the net, "I've got multiple black vans pulling up in the parking lot Sam. Looks like a cleanup crew sent in to pack up their operation."

"If they wanted to clean up their op they would've just cleared out and blew up the place." Sam gripped the detonator, "They're probably the cavalry." He squeezed the trigger and blew a hole in the wall. David went in first and sent two rounds from his XD .45 silenced pistol into a man sitting at a desk who drew down on him. He recoiled and slumped over his laptop soaking it with blood. Dust filled the air as they searched the apartment. Sam opened the bathroom revealing a bloody scene. Johnathan laid naked in a bath tub handcuffed and gagged. They apparently knew about subdermal implants and they went searching for one in John but couldn't find one. Sam walked over to his body and checked for a pulse. Nothing. Fisher clenched his fists and restrained himself from yelling at the top of his lungs. David walked in holding Johnathan's OPSAT that was with the dead hacker. His throat swelled up as his eyes fell upon Johnathan's tortured corpse.

He raked his hand through his hair, "No, no, no. This couldn't have happened." David's breath escaped him. His handler died and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Fisher told Briggs to rally up on their location, "Johnathan's dead and we've got more Engineer's coming up to greet us. The whole second floor is believed to be hostile so when you make contact, light'em up." Briggs acknowledged.

_The hot Mexican sun sent beads of sweat down the faces of each man as they exited their vans and ascended the stairs. Their operational HQ was under attack by 4th Echelon and they needed to protect their findings. As they reached the second story the lights were blown out and they could here subsonic thuds coming from the rooms where their agents took up living quarters. The Engineer leader motioned for five men to go left and five to go right. They went room to room and came across their dead comrades. Smoke produced by burnt flesh and cloth rose from their ballistic wounds. All of them were dead. One Engineer went to clear a room when he heard a gasp from behind. He twirled around in the low light only to see a drop of blood where his friend was just seconds before. He called out his name just as a blade entered his heart from behind. He tried to yell for help but a hand went across his mouth as life escaped him…_

"Okay, five guys down." Briggs quietly lowered the Engineer's corpse to the ground as he withdrew his knife.

Fisher looked through his sonar goggles but couldn't get a good read through the walls. "I think five or six more went this way." Fisher crouched and took point as Briggs fallowed and David flanked.

_No A/C? figures_. Sweat was dripping profusely from David's face since he wasn't used to the heat. North Dakota and his old job drilling oil popped into his mind as he continued forward. David saw a guy totting an Ak-47 walk into a room that they previously cleared. Engineers were infact living in the entire second story and most of them didn't see their lives flash before their eyes before they died, death comes quickly to those who call themselves Engineers. David peered into the room and saw the guy creeping towards the back of the room. David took aim with his pistol and fired striking the moving target in the head. Fisher came across the last five guys who were creeping down the hall. Fisher and Briggs were hiding in a room and once the group of Engineers passed by Sam quietly opened the door and tossed out a smoke grenade. The smoke plumed out of the grenade and quickly filled the hall. Fisher and Briggs used infrared vision to see their panicked prey. Men were screaming and coughing as the smoke stole the air from their lungs. A few of them began shooting blindly accidentally striking one another until they all sucumbed to the splinter cell's knives.

The three splinter cells finished off the entire Engineer force with efficient ease. They wrapped Johnathan's body in a shower curtain and collected all intel they found and made their way to one of the vans outside just as the federales arrived. After speeding off they rallied back at the Paladin and were able to take off before the Mexican authorities could put the pieces of the puzzle together.

David slumped down in the cargo bay and threw off his goggles. Bob and Steve approached him as Sam and Briggs walked by. They saw the medical crew place Johnathan's body in a bag and hauled him off for storage. "Son-of-a-bitch." Steven shook his head as Bob spoke up.

"Never gets easier." He cursed, "No matter how many colleagues I've lost, it just never get's easier to handle. I guess it's just the way this job plays out you know? Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes, not as lucky." He held out a hand for David. After helping him up David agreed.

"Still, this shouldn't have happened. They cornered us and brought the fight to us and killed one of our own." David paused then continued, "They fucking slaughtered him." Bob looked away imagining the pain Johnathan went through and inhaled deeply. "We killed them though, we got'em all." Steven nodded and threw a sympathetic smile on as if that made the score even. _Not one of our guys is worth a hundred of theirs._ The three splinter cells regrouped in the command center where Sam and Grim were going over their next move. They had a map of South America pulled up and were drawing out flight plans.

Sam looked up from the SMI and looked over the three splinter cells, "You boys okay?" The men nodded. Bob was cleared from his concussion but was advised to wear a tactical helmet, Steven's side wound was closed up too. He said it was just a flesh wound but it looked like it was bothering him more than he vocalized. "Good, we'll need your help when we raid Santiago Rivera's villa." Fisher motioned to the big screen. A villa came up on satellite. "Charlie pulled his name from that hackers laptop that we secured. Tell'em what you know kid."

Charlie popped up from his seat and officially met the new splinter cells, "Uh, well after cleaning the blood from the laptop I went through all the files especially the ones the hacker tried to erase. Apparently he was trying to wipe his hard drive before his brains ended up…" Grim yelled for him to hurry it up. "Okay okay, well they were looking in the sewers for a missing nuke, but not the red mercury one. It says that they got a rumor that a nuke went missing around there during the Mexican uprising but that's not true. So they went diving for this non-existent nuke and found ours by mistake. They put it up for sell to this known middle man weapons smuggler ,Santiago Rivera, and went looking for more nukes." Charlie laughed a little before continuing, "They sold it rather cheaply once they heard Rivera would use it to kill, wait for it… Americans! Shocker isn't it. They've been down in these tunnels for months so there's no telling when they found the red mercury."

Fisher spoke up, "But we know _somebody_ that does." They looked at the big screen showing a picture of Rivera.

* * *

><p><em>June 19th, 2015<em>

_12:10 A.M. _

_Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia_

_En route to El Trompillo Airport_

* * *

><p>The flight to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia wasn't too long just long enough to give the team some shut eye. They then needed to find an airstrip that was long enough to except the Paladin and luckily there was one right in the middle of the city. After a four hour flight and one midair refuel courtesy of the United States Air force, the 4th Echelon mobile HQ was on approach to El Trompillo Airport. The sleeping quarters was cozy enough. Steven declined to relax in the infirmary, obviously trying to prove he was missions ready. While David, Bob, Steven, and Briggs rested Fisher and Grim were hard at work planning their next step in finding the red mercury. The President also had a private chat with Fisher and Grim and stressed their importance in finding the bomb before it became weaponized.<p>

Briggs rolled over in his bunk, "I don't know about you guys but I can't sleep, not after what happened in Mexico."

David agreed, "Yeah. I wish I could've fucking done something, anything, you know?"

Briggs sat up in his bed. "I know it's tough, we all lose friends and colleagues in this line of work." He looked David in the eye, "I don't know how long you've been a splinter cell, but in the short time I've been sneaking in the shadows I can tell you that this job doesn't have a long life expectancy. He knew that, we all know this."

Steven was rubbing his wound when he piped up, "Fisher's been alive from the beginning though. Life's not limited to your job, it's how well you do it. And I guess it's who picks the shortest straw too at times, like John did."

Bob lifted his head from his pillow "Nothing he could have done differently I guarantee that. The Engineers just were on top of us that's all. Let's just be on top of this Rivera douche and get this over with."

A Paladin crew member called the men to the command center. Once there Fisher asked where Charlie was and remembered that he liked to sleep in his work shop. Once the team was around the SMI Fisher began to brief them over their next mission. "I know we lost one of our own today, but we've got a mission to tackle." Fisher seemed to look back into his past for a second before continuing, "I lost a friend when our country needed me the most and I had to keep going, I couldn't stop to think about any of it. There's always time for that later, so for now we've got a job to do." Fisher went over the villa's blue prints. They devised a plan to infiltrate the villa as stealthily as possible. The security detail was fuzzy but they knew Santiago Rivera had a number of hired thugs guarding his house. Also they knew that he had close ties with the chief of police so if the alarm was raised police would show up only to help the bad guys. Fisher exhaled and shot an irritated look at Grim, "I'm going to sit this one out guys and monitor things from here. That is unless you're not mission ready?" Steve stopped rubbing his side and Bob nodded signifying they were good to go. "Good. Briggs will fly you a mile out from the villa and you'll have to come in through the east while the sun's still down. Bob and Steve will take out the security systems. David, you'll find and interrogate Rivera. Send back any information that you obtain. Once you get everything you need from Rivera, finish him off. Dealing with the Engineers is a death sentence, people need to understand that." Fisher looked mildly pissed about not going on this mission. As it turns out, Grim complained to the President behind Fisher's back about his safety so the president ordered Fisher to sit this one out. Fisher shot a glare at Grim as she shifted on her hip and smirked.

* * *

><p><em>June 19th, 2015<em>

_12:24 A.M. _

_Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia_

_El Trompillo Airport_

* * *

><p>Charlie concocted a plan to land in Bolivia without having a U.S. government stamp on them so he radioed a distress call to the airport saying that they were a scientific team funded by an American University to track and find the endangered Maned Wolf species. They agreed to lend a hangar under a steep fine which was okay, just as long as the Bolivians kept themselves from getting nosey. Charlie told them that they had their own mechanical crew on board and all they needed now was privacy to get the job done. The Paladin crew stepped outside and began "working" on the plane. As the infiltration team was getting geared up Briggs had the chopper pulled out to a helipad. He told the Bolivian air controllers that they were going to launch the heli soon to track down a pack of wolves near the edge of the city. The air controllers agreed to give them the air space, with another fine.<p>

On board the Paladin, the splinter cells were pulling on their op suits in Charlie's armory. Charlie went over the suits features like the custom temperature water threads that were sown into the suit and laser proximity detector. Standard stuff but it'll do. The agents kept their sonar goggles, Bob received a new pair, and were refitted with FN 3000's. Bob looked his over and nodded in approval. Steve grabbed a couple extra bags as David walked over, "You expecting a blood bath?"

Steve shook his head, "No but you can never be to prepared to get yourself out of one." Charlie cracked a smile hearing this and presented something from his work bench.

"Well in that case, you should take this." Resting in his palm was a large looking sticky camera. "This thing is a proximity mine that could be remote detonated by your OPSAT or through a specific verbal command just in case your hands are tied. So once this bad boy's detonated it'll pop out six little flash bangs stunning anyone and_ everyone _within a ten yard perimeter, .5 seconds later the second phase will activate which is my favorite part cause it took forever to program," He smiled as he continued, "Wherever this thing is stuck, a wall, floor, ceiling, doesn't matter, a piston will propel this thing off of it and sensors will actively calculate when it's in the middle of the room or hallway or when it reaches the perfect level where it can launch stage three." He scooped a handful of shiny metal balls from a container. "Introducing stage three, 00 buck in a 360 degree pattern killing and shredding anything in its path." David's eyebrows almost jumped from his face. "Then stage four, the core is an EMP which will detonate blowing every unprotected electronic device in the area."

"Damn!" Bob palmed one of the sticky mines. "How many do you got?"

Charlie frowned, "I've been working on these things for a while and I'm proud to say they work flawlessly, but I've only got two." He handed the other one to David. "Use them wisely and when I say wisely please don't use them in vain. These things are for serious trouble." The splinter cell's said there thanks as Grim walked in the room.

"It's time." The men fallowed her to the SMI and they went over a quick briefing before they loaded up on Brigg's chopper. Sam wants them to go in without anyone knowing, that includes Rivera's security. It'll be tricky but that's why Sam's sending in three splinter cells. He doesn't want any mistakes.

Once in the air Briggs told them that they could radio for evac any time if things got to hot, but if things go according to plan they could hike a half mile away and he'll pick them up. The men acknowledged.

Unfortunately they didn't know much about the men Rivera hired to protect him, they did know about his electronic security though. He had cameras and motion sensors scattered about his villa. He also had an unpenetrable room that had double layered ballistic proof windows that were see through one way. His bedroom door was also made from solid steel plates with concrete filling the four inch gap. The hinges were reinforced obviously and the only way in was if you had Rivera's retina for the eye scanner. He was clearly paranoid that the boogie man was after him, but he was clearly underestimating his security because three boogie men were after him tonight.

David stared out into the black sky when Briggs grunted. "What's wrong?"

Brigg's shook his head, "I guess it's nothing. I thought I saw a blip on my radar but it's not there anymore." He tapped his sonar panel and shrugged. David flipped his night vision goggles on and looked out into the night sky, nothing.

Briggs brought the chopper down in a clearing in the brush below and took off maintaining an overhead pattern that was out of ear shot. The men made their way through the dense brush and eventually they came upon the massive villa located outside the city. It was secluded and looked like it could be on a post card welcoming tourists to Bolivia. David whipped out his binoculars and pressed them to his trifocal goggles. He saw security patrolling the outer wall of the villa and after a few minutes an armored car came up the road and drove past the villa making its patrol down the private street. "Okay, it looks like a fortress." David put his binoculars back and looked at Bob then Steve.

Steve spoke up, "Let's wait for the car to pass again then we'll move to the south wall and boost ourselves up from there." Bob nodded.

The car past after a few minutes and the men took off. Once at the wall Steve boosted Bob up who then grabbed on the edge of the wall. He called for Steve to climb up using him as an anchor. David fallowed thinking that the trick was a neat way to get to high places. Once in the villa they took in their surroundings. They were in the corner where exotic plants concealed them from patrolling guards. A swimming pool was up ahead that was secluded from the rest of the buildings using patches of vegetation and various paths. Flood lights illuminated the area too creating a sleepy atmosphere. Steve pulled a large leaf from his view and focused on a splashing sound, "We've got civvies near and in the pool." Three topless women were playing with a young man near the pool. They sat at the edge with their feet kicking in the water as the guy flirted with the women from inside the pool. "I've got facial recognition from the OPSAT. He's Rivera's cousin."

Bob glanced through the plants and gave a subtle whistle. "Ooh, nice."

David glanced at him and shook his head, "Wow. Well this is where we part ways. Security shack is over there." Bob and Steve nodded and headed off. Creeping through the shrubbery they found out that the pool had a run off that went down a river bed which they needed to cross to get to the security shack. It was in plain view of the party goers. Bob pulled his sonic emitter out but Steve put his hand on it, "They're not looking for intruders so there's no need to get them paranoid with the sound maker, if we do they'll be up and looking." Bob put it back and they crossed without a problem. They came up to the security shack after they let a guard pass by on a path. The security shack wasn't a shack, instead it was a small house that housed the A.M. and P.M. guards. Ten on ten off every day. Steve flipped on his sonar and saw the sleeping quarters with ten men silently snoozing on bunks and in the monitor's part of the house two men sat staring at the various monitors tied to the cameras that lay scattered about the villa. Bob and Steve crept outside to the room where the men were manning the monitors and to their surprise a window leading inside was open. Steve slowly cut through the screen as Bob kept his weapon trained on the two guys inside. Once done, Steve slowly made his way inside. Crouching and moving at the slowest pace possible he neared his target. He couldn't help but notice that the security guards had five different cameras zoomed in on the naked women's breasts. The guards made varying comments on each woman's _set_ only to end up agreeing with one another. Steve promised himself he'll laugh about this one day. Slowly he kept going until he was right behind the guards, he pulled a flash drive from his pouch and reached through the legs of one of the guards and placed it into a computer. His OPSAT poked his wrist twice telling him that his action was complete. Steve then withdrew the flash drive and exited the room. Bob was waiting outside with a clear adhesive that he painted on the screen bonding the cut making it look like it was never torn. Steve told David that the security systems were ready to be taken down. David acknowledged just as he slipped into the villa's main building.

It was very modern on the inside with floor to ceiling windows in the living room and a huge flat screen tv that was almost as big as the one inside the Paladin. A guard walked through the kitchen, flipped on the light, and opened the fridge. He found himself some milk and drank from the carton as he turned and looked into the living room. After seeing nothing he left and continued his boring patrol. David had an eye on him using his sonar vision looking through a sofa. The walls in the building were lined with something that blocked the sonar from seeing through them. _Guess I'll do this the old fashion way. _David switched his sonar off. Suddenly David's OPSAT poked his wrist at an increasingly fast pace. He looked at his OPSAT and it told him that a laser was being pointed in his proximity. David jerked his head around looking for cameras but couldn't see them. He flipped his EMF vision on and saw the camera hidden in the corner of the room. It was built into the wall to keep its ugly appearance from ruining the modern look. David combat rolled out of the cameras sight before it could spot him. _That was close. _David asked Steve if he could fry the security systems and right when he said it every light, camera, and radio went dead. David smiled as he crept forward into the shadows. He was surprised he didn't hear the security guards losing their shit as the security system went offline. _It must happen often then. _He drew his side arm to keep a low profile and advanced through the kitchen and down the hall way. Once he entered the confined space of the hall he switched his grip on his pistol to the C.A.R. system. He adopted this new way of shooting after he bumped into a terrorist while cutting the corner of a room back in his 3rd Echelon days. The terrorist was able to knock his gun off target then close with David and engage in hand-to-hand combat. After that incident David brought his pistol as close as possible without ruining his sight picture while in extreme close quarters.

David reached the end of the hall and could hear two guards talking. Guard number 1 was complaining how the radios go out when the security system crashes and guard number 2 replied, "The radios are tied with the main security system to keep them more secure."

"Well tell me then, how safe do you feel _right _now?"

"Oh shut up, you know what I mean. If someone was able to pick our communications up through a walkie talkie we wouldn't exactly have safe comms then would we? They would know every step that we would take before we took it! It's the price we pay for having such a secured system."

"_Secured system_, it's more like a broken system."

"Whatever."

The two guards continued their patrols. David peered around the corner and saw the intricate staircase that led to the second story. A skylight was right above the stairs illuminating it with pale moon light. David quickly made his way to the wall where the stair case met. He then ran up the wall and climbed over the banister avoiding the light. He heard a guard rounding the corner and was about to face him. With no time to flip back over the banister, David quickly pulled his L.E.D. flashlight and turned it on and began walking towards the guard. David held the light to his waist yet aimed the beam close to the guard's eyes as he passed by. The guard said his greeting as David turned the corner from where the guard came. David put his light away and wiped the sweat from his brow. _I can't believe that worked. _David looked ahead and saw the bedroom door leading to Rivera. It was impossible to infiltrate without Rivera's eye, so he needed to get it. There were hidden cameras outside Rivera's room to see who waited outside, but when frequent power outages occurred he used the peep hole in the door. David set up his OPSAT's retina scanner to the hole and knocked hard twice. David could see an orange glow coming from within the room then a shadow went over the peep hole. The OPSAT scanned a retina. Just as David began to place it over the scanner a small panel slid across the door and someone asked who was out there. The scan registered and David rammed his shoulder into the door popping Rivera in the nose with the two ton door. Blood sprayed across the floor as Rivera retreated further into the room and David closed in on him. Rivera tripped in the low glow of candles placed about his master suit and turned to face the looming figure standing over him.

"Please…Please don't kill me!" Rivera was half naked with a robe on which made David wonder where his "company" was. He scanned the room and listened closely, he could hear the shower running.

"Are they expecting you?" David asked confusing Rivera.

"Uh, y-yes I was to receive some champagne and get it ready, but…" A subdued knock came from the door. David hoisted Rivera up and placed a knife to his neck.

"Tell him to forget it. I speak fluent Spanish so don't try anything stupid." David shoved Rivera towards the door who dismissed the guard. David then threw him across the room and into the large wooden bed post. Rivera landed face first breaking his nose which caused more blood to spew out but before he could scream in agony David grabbed him hard around the throat squeezing his windpipe closed. Rivera's eyes began to water as he struggled to free himself from the vice like grip.

Rivera began to gurgle and spaz out so David let go and delivered a punch to his abdomen right when Rivera drew his breath causing him to fall over and cough uncontrollably. "I hope I've got your full attention Santiago Rivera." Rivera looked up with bloodshot eyes. He was sitting in his own piss too by the smell of it. "Tell me everything you know about the red mercury you purchased from the Engineers in Mexico." Rivera's face lit up. "You lie you die, very slowly." Rivera nodded.

"A-about a month ago…" David interrupted him.

"Specifics Rivera, remember your life depends on it." David pulled his suppressed pistol and flicked the safety off.

"Yes! I'll give you specifics just please, please don't kill me!" He began sobbing. He looked up and pointed to a laptop on his desk, "I've got every record and sale in there, but the Mexican deal was mostly off the books. I-I sold it to a Somalian guy who didn't give me his name. He seemed rather confident though…"

David leaned in, "Go on…"

Rivera swallowed hard and glanced off to the bathroom where his girls were now singing in the shower. "The buyer from Somalia was a scientist or something because he didn't care if it needed to be weaponized. He came here to buy it too. He inspected the product and was so impressed with it that he paid 500,000 dollars over my asking price."

David cursed under his breath. "How long ago was the deal?"

Rivera thought for a second, "Forty two days ago, exactly."

David pressed his pistol to Rivera's head and asked another question, "Where did the Somalian go from here?"

Rivera looked confused again, "I don't know, home?"

"You promised the Engineers in Mexico that you would kill Americans with the bomb. You sold it to someone who's going to use it on Americans too."

Rivera perked up, "No, no, no! I just said that so they would sell it to me! I knew I could get top dollar for some sort of nuclear device even if it wasn't weaponized. The Engineers just wanted to use it but couldn't so I reassured them that it would find its target. The Somalian man showed no interest in attacking America I promise!"

David chuckled, "Of course you wouldn't plan on hurting Americans, especially when one's got a gun to your head." He was about to squeeze the trigger when the roaring sound of helicopters rushed over head. _Son of a bitch!_ David contacted Bob and Steve who were making their way to the East wall, "What's going on out there guys?"

Bob came over the net talking over the swooshing sound of a helicopter, "I don't know! Looks like some pissed off people coming in to crash the party! Oh shit!" David could hear rounds popping off through his subdermal and he could hear the thuds coming outside the room.

Steve came in this time, "We've got paramilitary roping in the villa! Did you get the data?!"

"No, not all of it…" David glanced at the laptop then back at Rivera, "Did the Engineers find out who you sold the red mercury too?!" He growled prompting Rivera to respond hastily.

"No! They couldn't have! Their organization was decimated beyond repair after they failed to cripple America, I think."

After hearing the commotion over his subdermal Briggs looked down from his position high in the sky. He was right over the villa and could see two helicopters sweeping in. His gaze darted to his radar which showed no air craft in the area. _Stealth choppers..._

Automatic fire could be heard outside even though the room was thoroughly sound proof. Bob came in over David's subdermal, "We made our way inside the main house David. Gun fire was too intense outside so we'll extract together."

After a few minutes Steve whispered, "Open the door David! We're outside!" David quickly unlocked the door and the two splinter cells filed inside. As the door closed David could hear the increased magnitude of automatic fire outside. Rivera's company for the night called out after hearing the commotion and he shouted back for them to stay hidden.

"Come on we've got to get out through the windows!" Bob tore the curtains down and began prying at the frame.

David stashed the laptop in his pack and walked over to Rivera as the Bolivian tried explaining that the windows could not open nor could they be broken. David was about execute Rivera and fall back, but he hesitated. It got quiet outside. David shushed Rivera's pleas as he walked over to the door and heard faint thuds on the outside. _Breaching charges. _"Those paramilitary bad boys are going to breach any second!" David grabbed Rivera as a meat shield and instructed the splinter cells to wall jump into the corners of the room. One on each side of the door. Bob and Steve wedged themselves up in the dark corners and trained their rifles at the door. David stood back with his hostage, ready to fight back. Suddenly the door's hinges and knob blew off sending a cloud of dust into the room. The door slowly fell back with a loud crash and flash bangs were tossed in blowing up the room in white light. Luckily the trifocal goggles blocked the blinding light and ear buds kept the noise down to a minimum. A team of four men stormed the room checking their corners then they all trained their weapons on David in the center of the room. Thankfully they didn't see the splinter cells hiding up near the ceiling.

The men were shouting orders and one stepped forward prompting David to bury his gun deeper into Rivera's temple. All four men shot their hands out stressing for David not to shoot. The team leader spoke up, "Put the gun down now and you won't get hurt!"

The men were dressed in full tactical gear, they looked like an American S.W.A.T. team. "Grim is there another agency here, in Bolivia, in Rivera's house, pointing guns at my head?" He said the last part with a pissed off tone. 4th Echelon, the premier agency for collecting intel and they didn't even see this coming?

The team leader looked confused, "Who are you talking too? Just place the gun down and we can sort this all out in a minute okay?"

Grim came in over the splinter cell's subdermals, "Shit! How could we have missed this! They're an international counter-terrorism unit called Rainbow. I think they've got orders to take Rivera, alive." Sam's not going to be happy about that.

David frowned, "If you guys were a few minutes late I would've completed my mission."

A walkie talkie on the team leader sounded, "Knight do you have the package? Over."

"Hold on sir, we've got a bit of a problem here." Knight placed his sights back on David's head who then hid it behind Rivera's. "Release the hostage and drop the gun. I'm not fucking around."

Both Bob's and Steve's legs were on fire as they kept themselves wedged in their corners with guns trained on the operatives. David put his weapon on safe and holstered it. He then shoved Rivera towards Knight who took him in custody. The three other Rainbows moved in, one of them cuffed David, the other two brought out the two girls who were hiding in the bathroom. Four people sat cuffed on the ground in the middle of the room. Knight radioed in that they captured Rivera and he told his leader about this "assassin" that they also captured. David could hear Bob and Steve whispering over his subdermal, they were devising a plan to bust David out. Sam also came in over their subdermals and told them to kill Rivera if possible, the Rainbows were there to arrest him and convict him in a world court for selling arms to the cartel. "Save the world the tax dollars and finish him". Suddenly two of the Rainbows convulsed uncontrollably and crashed to the ground. Knight twirled around in shock as he and his last operative scanned for threats but didn't see them. The other Rainbow met the same fate as a sticky shocker was shot into his side. Finally Knight saw Bobs outline in the corner but before he could get a good sight picture David swept his legs out from under him and Steve was close behind. Steven pinned Knight to the ground and subdued him with zip ties. Knight was cussing and calling for his men to respond.

Bob rubbed out his legs as he responded, "Don't worry Mr. Rainbow, they're only knocked out." He threw a smirk across his face.

Knight's eyes lit up, "You know who we are?!" He got to his knees and looked at the men cladded in black.

Steve nodded as he cut David's restraints, "Sorry about that sir, but we've got a mission of our own, and to be fair we were here first so…" David rubbed his wrists as he drew his pistol and shot Rivera in the head before he could beg for his life, again.

"NOOO! Son of a bitch!" Knight tried to get up but Bob tased him, incapacitating him for a while.

Steve spoke up, "Briggs is coming to us once we leave the villa so we don't need to go far for exfil. I also saw two helos outside with two teams that roped in, so one more team of who-knows-how-many is out there. Let's keep to the shadows once we get outside and take our time." David nodded and Bob threatened to tase the girls if they kept screaming.

"Sounds good let's just go before more of these _Rainbows_ arrive." Bob holstered his taser.

The three splinter cells crept out into the hallway and made their way to the ground floor. No contact but dead guards were strewn out across the villa. David and Steve fallowed Bob as he rounded a corner only to be surprised by a Rainbow sticking a suppressed SMG in his face. "F-F-FUCK!" Bob instinctively slapped the barrel away from his face and closed the distance to the operative. The Rainbow wasn't alone though, he was with a team of four operatives stacked up against the corner. Bob tried to subdue the operative but was grabbed from behind by another Rainbow. David rounded the corner and threw a choke hold over the Rainbow operative Bob surprised and Steve stepped out pointing his FN 3000 at the rest. The Rainbow who held Bob hostage yelled for David to let go of his hostage and the other two Rainbows yelled for Steve to drop his gun. All of the men were tensed with fingers floating over their triggers. Suddenly eight Rainbows came from behind, four of them being the ones they ambushed earlier. Knight thrusted his gun into David's temple and took his pistol away another operative subdued Steven and cuffed him.

The Rainbow's mission leader, Logan Keller, spoke up, "Ayana, get Six on the line, we've got a situation."

* * *

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